KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Monday fell flat after a range-bound session, with the KSE-100 index closing down by 83 points (0.18 per cent) at 46,110 ahead of monetary policy’s announcement scheduled for tomorrow.
Speculation over a possible interest rate hike by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has dampened the overall sentiment at the bourse. Moreover, mounting inflation and rising secondary market yields acted as triggers for an across the board sell-off.
The bourse plunged in early trading and reached its lowest level of 45,728.42 points. It quickly regained control to overcome its losses before it decline further and ended on a negative note. At close, the KSE-100 finished with a fall of 83.92 points or 0.18% to settle at 46,110.50.
Sectors dragging the benchmark KSE-100 index down included technology and communication (99.21 points), fertilizer sector (36.59 points), and chemical (17.57 points). Shares of 340 companies were traded on Thursday, of which 150 registered an increase, 166 recorded a fall, and 24 remained unchanged.
Volume increased marginally, clocking in at 263.5 million on the all-shares index, up from at 238.5 million a day ago. However, the value of shares traded decreased to Rs8.47 billion on Thursday.
Merit Packaging Limited was the volume leader with 42.18 million shares, followed by Ghani Global Holdings with 29.06 million shares, and Service Fabrics at 17.73 million shares.
